Blais



Feb. 14, 1956 Filed Jan. 10, 1951 FIG.

FIG. 6,

L. BLAIS 2,734,361

KNITTING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet l IN V EN TOR.

LIONEL BLAIS BY Feb. 14, 1956 BLA|$ 2,734,361

KNITTING MACHINE Filed Jan. 10, 1951 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2.

FIG. 5.

INVENTOR.

LIONEL BLAIS BY Feb. 14, .1956 BLAIS KNITTING MACHINE" 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Jan. 10, 1951 QM NM m6 EA L B L E N n u L United States Patent "cc KNITTING MACHINE Lionel Blais, New Ipswich, N. H., assignor to Tricnit Hosiery Mills, Inc., New Ipswich, N. H., a corparatlon of New Hampshire Application January 10, 1951, Serial No. 205,283 9 Claims. (Cl. 66-108) This invention relates to a knitting machine of the type employing a sinker reverse plating mechanism such as is disclosed in Patent No. 2,052,777 issued September 1, 1936, to R. H. Lawson.

The primary object of this invention is to facilitate the production of designs in knitted articles such as socks and the like bearing multi-colored designs against a contrasting field.

Another object is to facilitate the application of a wrap yarn or yarns of contrasting color to the article being knit, and to enable such a wrap to be located in any desired portion of the field or body of the article.

The above and other objects may be attained by employing this invention which embodies among its features so operating the sinkers of a convenient knitting machine while plating that the body portion or field of the article being produced by the machine is knitted in reverse plating while a design in the article will be knitted in conventional plating whereby a wrap yarn may be applied to the article at any desired location within the field to thus increase the number of designs and contrasting colors that may be employed to produce the finished article.

Still other features include so controlling the movements of the sinkers of the machine that one portion of the design knitted into the article may also be used to fill in another portion of the design.

Still other features include sinker jacks having selector butts which vary in length on individual jacks and selector means operating in conjunction with the jacks and automatically controlled by the knitting instrumentalities for selectively engaging the butts on the jacks whereby the advance of the sinkers can be selectively controlled.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a top plan view of a conventional knitting machine embodying the features of this invention;

Figure 2 is a side view of the machine illustrated in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view taken substantially along the line 33 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is an irregular sectional view taken substantially along the line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a developed view of the pattern selecting sinker butts; and

Figure 6 is a perspective view of one of the sinker jacks employed in connection with this invention.

Referring to the drawings in detail the knitting machine is equipped with a conventional rotary needle cylinder 16 adjacent the upper end of which is supported a conventional bed ring 12 which is equipped in its upper surface with radially extending grooves in which the sinkers 14 (Figure 4) and sinker jacks designated generally 16 are mounted to slide. A conventional cap ring 18 is disposed above the bed ring 12 and carries on its undersurface sinker control cams 20, 22 and 24. A conven tional jack supporting ring 26 is carried adjacent the underside of the bed ring 12.

Mounted on the machine adjacent the bed ring 12 for 2,734,361 Patented .Feb. 14, 1956 longitudinal sliding movement toward and away from said bed ring are the selector bars 30 of a selector mechanism designated generally 32. The selector mechanism 32 comprises in addition to the longitudinally slidable bars 30 a selector drum 34 which is mounted for rotation about a vertically extending stud 36 which is carried by the machine. The lower end of the drum 34 has coupled thereto a peripherally grooved ratchet wheel 38 which is engaged by a pawl 40 carried by an oscillating lever 42 which is coupled by a suitable link 44 to the drive mechanism 0f the machine all in a conventional manner. It will thus be seen that the drum 34 will be rotated in a step by step motion as the machine operates.

Surrounding the drum 34 and held thereon by suitable clamping means 46 of conventional form are selector rings 48 each of which carries radially extending lugs 50 which as the drum 34 rotates engages certain of the selector members 30 to advance them toward the bed ring 12 all in a conventional manner. The selector lugs 50 are preferably of diiferent lengths as illustrated in Figure 3 so that the selectors 30 maybe moved a selected distance toward the bed ring 12 according to the design being knitted into the product of the machine. Excepting for the varying lengths of the selector lugs 50, the machine so far described is of conventional form, and the selectors 30 are provided with laterally extending arms 52 to which retractile coil spring 54 are coupled in order to yieldingly hold the selectors 30 in retracted position relative to the bed ring 12.

Each sinker jack 16 comprises a sinker supporting arm 56 carrying at one end a perpendicularly extending body portion '58 from which project laterally and in spaced parallel relation selector butts 60 and 62 which are respectively long butts and short butts. The arm 56 is also provided with a stop 64 against which its respective sinker 14 is normally engaged. A vertically extending butt 66 projects upwardly from the upper end of the body 58 for engagement by the cam 22, and a similar vertically extending butt 68 depends from the arm 16 in spaced relation to the body 58 for engagement with the inner upper edge of the bed ring 12 during the period of travel of its respective jack along the jack supporting ring 26.

In Figure 5 there is disclosed a developed view of the sinker jack arrangement showing the butts 60 and 62 in proper relation to produce a design of the desired configuration. In the present instance the design represents a flying duck and in setting up the machine for operation the long butts 66 are represented in Figure 5 by the solid black lines whereas the shorter butts 62 are represented by the crosses or X marks. With the longer and shorter lugs 50 on the selector drum arranged to move the selectors 30 in proper sequence to engage the selector butts 60 and 62 on the jacks 16, it will be evident that as the drum 34 is rotated about the stud 36 the selectors 3%) will be moved to engage the respective butts 60 and 62 on the jacks 16 so as to advance the sinkers 14 and cause the field or body of the garment to be knitted in reverse. The portions of Figure 5 marked with the X indicate the shorter selector butts 62 on the jacks 16 which when advanced under the control of the selector drum 34 cause the sinkers to advance so as to produce in cooperation with the butts 60 a reverse knitting operation of the machine except at those points where no selection is indicated by the white spaces in Figure 5. In this way the wing and certain other portions of the flying duck will be knitted in the conventional manner against a reversed field and as the drum moves through its cycle, the selectors 30 are moved backwards by the springs 54 and held out of contact with the corresponding butts 62 on the jacks 16 so that the portions of the pattern illustrated in Figure 5 and bearing the X marks will be knitted in the conventional manner, thus completing the design. After having completed the design, the machine is again operated by selecting all of the sinkers to produce a reverse field, and while so operating, Wrap yarns may be applied to the field or body of the garment in order to further add to the overall design carried by the garment.

Owing to the different lengths of the selector lugs 50 and the selector butts 60 and 62 it will be evident that by properly arranging the selector lugs on the selector drum 34 and employing jacks having selector butts o different lengths, an infinite number of patterns or designs may be introduced into a knitted garment and furthermore by advancing the jacks of the sinkers used in knitting the field or body of the garment the field or body will be reverse plated and hence wrap yarns may be used directly in the field at any desired locations and need not be limited to an area of a design. As a result an unusually large number of ornamental wrap yarns may be used in producing the garment.

While in the foregoing there has been shown and described the preferred form of this invention, it is to be understood that minor changes in the details of construction, combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

I claim:

1. In a knitting machine of the type employed in plating and having knitting instrumentalities including sinkers which when advanced effect a reverse knitting operation, jacks engaging said sinkers for moving said sinkers into their advanced position, selecting butts of varying lengths on each jack, means adjacent said butts and operating in unison with the knitting instrumentalities for engaging said butts and advancing said sinkers into reverse knitting position While knitting the body of a product, and means carried by the machine and connected to the last named means for yieldingly disengaging said means from said butts while knitting a design in the product.

2. In a knitting machine of the type employed in plating and having knitting instrumentalities including sinkers which when advanced effect a reverse knitting operation, jacks engaging said sinkers for moving said sinkers into their advanced position, selecting butts of varying lengths on each jack, selectors movable into and out of contact with the butts, and means carried by the machine and operating in unison with the knitting instrumentalities for engaging said selectors during the knitting of the body of a product of the machine to cause said body to be knit in reverse and selectively to permit selected selectors to move under the influence of the yielding means out of engagement with the butts of selected jacks.

3. A sinker jack for a kniting machine comprising a sinker supporting and advancing arm, a body member carried by the arm and extending at an angle with relation to said arm, and selector butts of different lengths carried by the body member and extending laterally therefrom.

4. A sinker jack for a knitting machine comprising an elongated sinker supporting and advancing arm, a body member carried by the arm adjacent one end thereof, said body member projecting perpendicularly from said arm, and selector butts of different lengths carried by the body member and extending laterally therefrom.

5. ln a knitting machine of the type employing sinkers and sinker jacks, the combination with said sinker jacks having butts of different lengths in a plurality of steps a selector drum mounted on the machine, and selector lugs of differing lengths carried by the drum and projecting radially therefrom cooperating with the butts of each step for effecting selection and movement of certain of the sinkers into a position to effect reverse knitting by the machine.

6. In a knitting machine having an endless series of independently movable needles, and a series of sinkers which are shiftable between alternate positions for plating and reverse plating a plurality of yarns; the combination of a series of jacks associated with said sinkers, each jack having a plurality of butts providing a series of design steps, the butts on each jack being of two selected lengths in accordance with a fabric pattern of plated and reverse plated loops, a pattern control arranged to act upon the butts of a selected step to shift selected sinkers to the reverse plating position to form one portion of the pattern, and a second pattern control arranged to act upon the butts of said step to move the previously selected sinkers and additional selected sinkers to the reverse plated position for the formation of a second portion of said pattern.

7. In a knitting machine having an endless series of independently movable needles and a series of sinkers which are shiftable between alternate positions for plating and reverse plating a plurality of yarns; the combination of a series of jacks associated with said sinkers, each jack having a plurality of butts providing a series of design steps, the butts on each jack being of two selected lengths in accordance with a fabric pattern of plated and reverse plated loops, pattern means having a series of moves and arranged to act upon the long butts only in the several steps to shift the associated sinkers to the reverse plating position, and additional pattern means having a second series of moves and arranged to act upon the long and short butts in said series of steps in said second series of moves to shift the associated sinkers to the reverse plating position.

8. In a knitting machine having an endless series of independently movable needles and a series of sinkers which are shiftable between alternate positions for plating and reverse plating a plurality of yarns; the combination of a series of pusher jacks associated with said sinkers, each jack having a plurality of pusher type butts providing a series of design steps, said butts being of two selected lengths including short and long in accordance with a fabric pattern of plated and reverse plated loops, a pattern drum adapted for stepped rotation providing a series of pattern moves, said drum having a separate series of cams of two selected lengths for each sinker jack butt about the periphery of the drum for use in successive pattern moves constructed and arranged so that low pattern cams will advance only sinkers having jacks with cooperating long butts to the reverse plating position and high pattern cams will advance sinkers having jacks with cooperating long and short butts to the reverse plating position.

9. In a circular knitting machine for plating and reverse plating a plurality of yarns to produce a pattern on the body of a product of the machine, a series of sinkers shiftable between alternate positions for plating and reverse plating said yarns, a jack engaging each of said sinkers to effect the shifting of the same, a plurality of long and short butts on each of said jacks, a drum operating in unison with the knitting instrumentalities of the machine, a plurality of lugs projecting radially from said drum in a desired pattern setup of long, short and no lugs, selector bars extending between said jacks and the drum, certain of said bars being movable by the long lugs of the pattern setup to shift the complerncntal of said sinkers into reverse plating positions when said long lugs are aligned with the said short butts thus allowing the shifted sinkers to be returned to normal plating positions, and yieldable means for retracting the said bars when a short butt aligns with a short or no lug of the pattern setup.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,675,557 Howie July 3, 1928 (Other references on following page) UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,082,751 2,012,095 Cole et al. Aug. 20, 1935 2,364,168 2,052,777 Lawson Sept. 1, 1936 08,3 8 2,057,436 Lawson Oct. 13, 1936 2,529,181 2,073,595 Lawson et a1. Mar. 9, 1937 5 6 Lawson et a1. June 1, 1937 McAdams June 27, 1939 Lawson et al. July 16, 1940 Page Nov. 7, 1950 

